words and formulas memorized for exams one or two lifetimes ago

for reasons no one knows,

or cares to remember

while maestros habla mucho por nada

and books keep piling higher and higher

with information that keeps getting lost and collected

but never found

and for some reason never recycled,

as time comes to collect

there’s more poetry in my trash than I’d like to admit,

definitely more poetry that I would never want anyone to see,

though for whatever reason

this isn’t one of them

I have a word of the day that gets sent to my email every day,

though I forgot the password because I made it some really good word

that no one would guess,

not even me, I suppose,

so I’ve never actually seen what the word of the day is,

or who sent it…

Fred Aiken Writing